Stone-Pressed 2004 Yiwu Wild Arbor Sheng

When I got home from my appointment & errands, it was time for some Sheng! I haven’t had any of this one lately, so it was the candidate. It’s a very lively flavored tea, reminding me of newly mown hay with clover in it. I used 4 oz in my Gaiwan, combining 4 steepings at a time into a small pitcher. I carried this pitcher to my studio, & practiced for a gig I have coming up in 2 weeks, my Annual Birthday Bash Gig, sipping tea in between songs, sipping & contemplating how to make a piece better, how to add another layer, how to alter the vocal…This went on for 3 hours, refilling the pitcher as needed. I went through 4 pitchers. This first was steeped for 4 secs each cup, the 2nd for 8 secs, the 3rd for 12, & the 4th for 16. I also drank a few individual cups at the end, each steeped 30 secs. I could keep going, it still has flavor, but a package arrived, and I’m very excited about that package!

Yep… in the world of pu’erh, I am still so much a newbie. Perhaps with enough consumption, I’ll be able to distinguish beyond sheng/shu (like I can now distinguish a bit between different straight black teas), but until then, my palate remains terribly unrefined.

I still find that sheng is much more to my liking; it doesn’t brew up nearly as dark and inky as many shus I’ve tried, and the flavour tends to be more sharp and spicy than a mellow shu (and also, I don’t tend to notice things like earthiness and fishiness, which I still have trouble with).

Anyhow, I attempted to use about 2 tsp of this cake for my ~8-10oz. cup, and gave the pu’erh a 15 second rinse prior to a 30 second infusion. I’m quite pleased with the results – pleasant, light flavour (but lots of it), and that characteristic “sheng” flavour. It’s also quite smooth, which is very enjoyable. Unfortunately… that’s about all I can tell you. I’m enjoying it while reading/writing about antioxidant activity assays, and it’s a welcome distraction, heh. Hopefully I’ll have the chance for another few infusions later this morning, or tomorrow.

Thank you to David Duckler for this fantastic Sample. Latest issue of this fine Pu’er

One of the stories I read on the Verdant website was the idea of buying a newer brick of Pu’er when you get engaged, and spend half of the brick (so to speak) with the people who attend the wedding, and the rest of the brick little by little piece on every anniversary for the rest of your life. The point being, that every year the Pu’er and the marriage will age,mature and get better. I love that way of thinking. You can apply this to other occasions…a birth and so on. This Pu’er is that kind of brick. The one you would want to choose for lifelong celebrations.

Because this tea will reach 18 infusions I would not attempt to write about each one and fill pages with notes. I know you are relieved! Me too! I’m going to have to lump some information together and hope it makes sense.

First, all steep times were 4 seconds to begin with and 6 seconds after the 8th infusion.
1tsp dry Pu’er
4 oz. clay Gaiwan (la tee dah)
Spring water at the boil
I did a 2 second rinse first and washed my hands in the rinse to remove any other scent.
Every steeping produced a light brown (more beige) liquor.

Wet Leaves:
Steeping:
1. The most fantastic smell of any leaves ever! They smelled like the drippings from a roast! And sweet like the sweetness of artichokes!
Later steepings: No leather smells at all until steeping #5 and then a bit vegital. Before that there was some smoky scent that had developed. I loved the really good smelling, beautiful, big dark green leaves.

Flavor:
1. The first pour was full and warm like cedar wood and sparkled. I smelled a floral note but could not tell what it was.
2. Jasmine right up front and then dryness like the skin of juniper berry…but then WHAT IS THIS? Sweet smoky ceder with a bacon flavor! Couldn’t be, but it was! I didn’t notice it at first and went back to smell the wet leaves…uh huh…there it was…smoky little leaves! Very juicy too! I loved the smoke!
3. Not as smoky, more like cedar but more tannin. Hum.
4. Same as #3
5. Now, this pour was beginning to get more floral, sweeter, sparkling and juicy. There was a creaminess at the end and jasmine flowers that brightened the cup. It tingled.
6. Unbelievable, apple and citrus came to visit…light and refreshing with something else. That taste was cinnamon to me. Not sandlewood or cedar…cinnamon. It had the warmth and spice to compliment the citrus.
7. Again, spicy and floral. The citrus coming and going. I think it was shape shifting. I had 11 more infusions to go!

What I had enjoyed was the hide and seek…the playful quality of this Sheng. I certainly had never smelled leaves like this. Incredable! And such depth of flavor with a consistant 4-6 second contact was amazing to me. What the future holds for those fortunate few who possess a whole brick of this Pu’er…well…what a grand thought! I have more infusions to go!

Just a FYI This is the first tea that Verdant Imported when the business was started. Very Special!

I got this lovely sheng from Verdant a week or two ago but am just getting around to trying it now.

I decided to steep this in the gaiwan, and did a quick rinse. Unfortunately I brushed my teeth right before I tried this which is definitely impacting the flavor, duh!

I liked the intensely aromatic, almost burnt woodsy smell which is happening here. My first steep was for around 30 seconds and is very robust. I’m wanting to say I taste eucalyptus, but perhaps that is just toothpaste. I felt like I was sensing the lychee and there was also a cinnamon sort of element present here.

I think I am too tired to rate this tonight and the toothpaste has totally thrown me off. stay tuned for more details.

Every language has its own great advantages. I love English- the adjectives to summon forth are some of the best I have encountered (especially for visual concepts). However, our language is a bit more limited when it comes to taste, texture and smell. This is where Chinese comes in.

I took a rainy Qingdao day (In Seattle they call it a “marine layer”, in Qingdao, they say it is misty) and sat with Wang Yanxin drinking tea. Every pu’er she pulled from her mysterious back room stacks tasted like seeing a new color for the first time. I was learning about “sticky rice” aroma, “fruit” aroma, etc in the context of pu’er all were so bracing. After drinking teas at that level, you just want to fast because it seems wrong to bulldoze the ethereal aftertastes lingering on the palate. (Usually I would give in though and stop for charcoal roasted fish and shrimp on a stick while walking home.)

When Wang Yanxin brewed up this Yiwu, I can say in earnest that tasting it felt like being reunited with an important part of myself that had gone missing. She described the flavor as “zhang.” Apparently, zhang is a flavor used to describe the cooling sensation and herbaceous complexity that a wild picked pu’er picks up when growing in a forest with cedar or fir trees. It is a certain sensation in the back of the throat and tongue that is almost electric in its tingling cooling qualities. This taste felt like being reunited with my home town, my childhood heroes, my best friends.

I love zhang. I seek it out in everything now. Fine gin, birch beer, juniper berries, some kinds of tulsi. Zhang feels like pure energy melting on the tongue. This brick of yiwu was the first tea to give me that. It is what inspired me to understand that tea is more than flavor, texture, or aroma- it is energy, memory recall, connection to the land, and a synergy of all these put together.

Why do I leave a tasting note on this tea after so long? Because I am so excited to share the fact that Wang Yanxin agreed to get me a later 2004 pressing from the same workshop, and the 12 cakes I could import have arrived. Last time we were able to secure a few bricks of Yiwu, they sold out in 1 week and a half, so I am very excited to offer these up again. I hope you enjoy this tea as much as I do: http://verdanttea.com/teas/stone-pressed-yiwu-wild-arbor-sheng/

I am brewing Ala Jim Marks Style. It’s already a winner. Generous leaf in the Yixing and steeped for what seems like an eternity. The brewed has warmed me in the way that the Verdant Big Red Robe had only more so. I feel warm and glowing. The taste I am getting is truly unique. I cannot place a certain flavor profile other than wood. I should be more poetic and say, cedar forests. I thank Jim for his advice. I too like to taste the tea. To feel the tea. I am feeling this one! I am now entering the Pu-ehr Path. And I like what I see….

This is pretty good! There are hints of mushroom that I can taste. I can also pick up the small notes of apple, too! I actually like this one better cold. It seems to fit my palate better with the flavors and I could taste the flavors better when it was cold. This is a neat pu-erh. It’s sweeter than most and I like that. The aroma isn’t funky either. Leaves a refreshing aftertaste even!

This is lovely. One of my favorite Pu-erh teas thus far, maybe THE favorite. It doesn’t taste like what I’ve come to recognize as Pu-erh, in fact, if someone had simply placed a cup before me, I don’t know that I’d immediately identify it as a Pu-erh. This is very nice, indeed.

The aroma is amazing. Normally, I brace myself for a strong earthy aroma, but, with this pu-erh, only hints of earthiness are there. Mere hints. In the dry leaf, I noticed a hint of mushroom more than the strong, musky, earthy (dirt) smell that I have come to identify as Pu-erh. That mild earthiness translates to the taste as well, with mere hints of an earthy taste. This is extraordinarily enjoyable. I taste hints of fruit in this cup – something I have never really associated with a Pu-erh before. A solid flavor of wood comes through, as well as beautiful spice notes that are lightly peppery. Not spicy or peppery in a “hot” kind of way, but more of a mild pepper note that never quite develops fully, but continues to develop as I sip… still never quite reaching PEPPER exactly, but only subtle-y nudging at it.

Wonderful Pu-erh. I’m currently on my fourth infusion. I find that the more you steep this one, the more complex it becomes. I would recommend this to any tea enthusiast, even those who have found Pu-erh not to their liking in the past. This one will change your mind!

Oh my… So for awhile I have been saying how shengs aren’t really for me and I haven’t really developed a palate for them. But this sheng, oh my goodness, this sheng is so delightful to drink! It is immediately sweet and sparkling and woodsy with a touch of spice and just zero astringency, zero! I did a quick rinse and two quick steeps and they are just so unbelievably good. Love the cedar, love the stone, love the fruit (no idea what kinda fruit but the sweet with the juice and all the richness reads as fruit rather than rock sugar or honey) and cinnamon and its just so pristine and complex and I uh guh! And and and! There is a buttery note in the second and third infusion, unbelievable! Best sheng I’ve tried hands down! Now to spend the day with it. Must order at least 4oz, not sure if I’m ready to properly store a cake, but this is the sheng I want to impress guests with.

This morning I finished up the last of my sample of Mt. Yiwu Sheng Pu’er, and I am truly sorry to see it go. It is one of the top three Sheng Pu’er teas that I have ever tasted, and shares this honor with the two other Sheng Pu’er teas I received in my Verdant Tea sampler. So nice that a company uses it’s sampler to put their best foot forward and tries to gain you as a customer.

Through multiple infusions, this tea takes you on a journey that is both quiet and adventurous. It is a walk through a rain filled forest, with stops along the way for a taste of spicyness, a later nibble at pear or apple, and a sniff of moss, mushrooms and distant campfire. Sorry if my description is a bit too imaginative, and should perhaps be more prosaic, but this Pu’er (along with the Verdant Teas ‘06 Artisan Revival and ’03 Mt Banxhang) gets me excited about Chinese Pu’er like no others.